Tag Archives: subtrust funding

Dear Liza: In settling an AB trust I understand that 50% of the estate is to be placed in each of the A and B trusts. However, in our estate our house is worth more than all of the other equity. How can the estate be settled? With percentages of the home? Put the home in which trust? That’s not a question you can answer in the abstract. Those decisions get made after the first spouse dies. First, you can’t know, now, what assets you’ll own then. Second, in an A/B trust, the assets of the deceased spouse are used to fund a trust, often called a “B” trust or a “Unified Credit Trust,” up to the amount of money that’s excluded from the federal estate tax in the year of the first spouse’s death. In 2012, that’s $5.12 million, but at the end of this year, that number falls to $1 million, unless Congress enacts new law. So, it’s not always going to “half” of the total trust estate, that will entirely depend upon the tax code in effect at the time your spouse dies. But, to answer part of the question you asked, the B Trust can be funded with a percentage of the house, and often is when there aren’t other assets that can be used to do so.

About Liza Weiman Hanks

Liza is an attorney who specializes in estate planning for families of all ages. She is a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. A graduate of Stanford Law School, she has also served as an instructor at the Santa Clara University Law School and practiced with the state of California and a prestigious Silicon Valley firm. Liza is also the author of Busy Family's Guide to Estate Planning: 10 Steps to Peace of Mind. She lives with her family in Campbell, California.